I'm sorry madam, not with the baby....

That is what I was told as I manoeuvred Noah's buggy into a pub with such skill even Lewis Hamilton and his wannabe formula 1 drivers would envy.

I was meeting up with House of Pinheiro, Pincushion Treats and Stitch and Witter to celebrate the end of House of Pinheiro's MBA course, and I could not wait to sit down. My weary legs, unfortunately, were not going to get the rest they so craved. Apparently, our rendezvous point had a no children's policy, as they only served alcohol, Drat!!

The waiter smiled apologetically as he told me I would have to manoeuvre myself back out whence I came. He had this look on his face that said " I have to act like I am really sorry but I am actually really happy to be turning this irresponsible woman out on the streets. What did she think we serve here? Breast milk on the Rocks? Begone from my sight you irresponsible little fool." I kid you not. I almost heard the words, and no, I had not been drinking alcohol. I did feel sorry for him and his establishment though, because unbeknown to him, I just won a million pounds, and I was itching to start the spending spree.

It is all I seem to do these days....

Hanging out with people that is.

I reluctantly dragged myself back to London from Belgium on Friday night,and then promptly hopped on the train again first thing Saturday morning to meet Mela at St.Pancras station. Destination? Leicester people. Ah Leicester, home to Marie and Kat, and random people who insert themselves in your pictures uninvited ( I have proof of that).

Mela and I went down to spend the day with Marie and Kat on Saturday, and what a fun day it was. The food was AMAZING!!!. I quickly set aside my dieting plans for the day. Can I at this point remind you that I am eating for two?  There is the possibility I might not be getting another invite soon from Marie, so I made sure I memorized the route to her abode. I know I shall visit that house again. Invited or not. The food was that good.

Weekend in Review Pt 2

I can't even begin to describe how much fun I had on Sunday. I was like a kid in a candy store. You have no idea how much I have been wanting to go out and just have some me time. As much as I love my young one, I do need some time once in a while to feel alive, and in control of myself.

Noah, sensing I would be having fun without him, decided to pull a fast one on me, and was fidgety all day. Unfortunately for him, he underestimated my determination to have a baby-free outing. Oh, there was alcohol to be sampled, and there was no way I was not going to treat myself to a few cocktails. So, despite his tearless crying ( Gone are the days when I fretted when he cried), I impatiently dumped him into his father's arms, and sprinted for the door. Does that make me a bad mother? Yes? Can you in all honestly blame me? Yes? ....well you have never tasted Mela's baking or cocktails. Believe me when I say that girl could bake her way out of trouble. When I was with child ( can you tell I read the Bible?), she came to visit me often, and brought many delights. Her chocolate macarons had Junior Mr.Dibs salivating for days....and that by itself, is an achievement.

Crafter's Ceilidh: While I still have control of my life!

Junior Mr.Maxwell is due to make his entrance on the 4th of April, and from what I have heard ( and witnessed) from friends and relatives who have kids, your life is snatched away from you. You become a prisoner to the little munchkin, and you have to have the skills of Angela Merkel to arrange a get away.

So imagine my delight when three lovely ladies from Scotland announced they were having a meet-up on the 21st of January. I will be 30weeks gone by then, VERY heavy, I know, but still possessing enough energy to brave a 5hour train ride to Edinburgh (I hope). It will be too late for me to take a flight at that time, because of  you-know-who, so train it is. Thanks Debi, Kestrel and Kristen for giving me an opportunity to have a bit of excitement before the wee bairn arrives.

My train tickets have already been booked, and all I have left to do is sit tight and wait for January to come. I am so excited. You will also not believe how kind Debi is....then again I'm sure most of you already know that. She's offered to let a couple of us stay over at her house. Can you imagine? Her reason being she can't bear to see us spending money on accommodation, when it could be used to buy more fabric. I think Debi should be appointed the Small Creative Business Tsar of Scotland. Does anyone know which Scottish MP I have to start harassing with this request?

Is anyone else making the trip up North? I know Karen and Melizza have already booked their transportation and accommodation, so that makes three of us already from down south.

Roobeedoo, I am PRAYING fervently that you can make it. It will be so nice to see you.

Me Made June Brighton Meet-up

What day are we in now? the days all seem to have blurred into one. Somewhere between friday 17th june and today, I've kind of lost track of where I am. anyways, saturday was a special day. Zoe organised a MMJ meet-up in Brighton, for those who could make time to attend.

So there I was, trying to reaasure Mr.Dibs on friday night, as I lay shivering on my bed, that I would be well enough to go to Brighton on saturday. I'd been to work on friday, but left early when my boss saw me crying ( lol, yes i do that when i am in pain), and told me to go home.

Nothing was going to stop me from going to Brighton. Not when I had managed to bag a return ticket for £10. I was hoping by saturday morning I would be feeling better, but when I woke up on saturday to a massive headache, I knew I had to take emergency actions. I quickly overdosed on pain killers, and smiled bravely at Mr.Dibs when he enquired after my health.

Anyways, here are a couple of shots.



Claire's magical trolley, which had everything inside!!



Here I was playing a game of pap the papparazzi



Claire

 

Tilly



Zoe, our hostess with the mostess!!







Santie all excited!!





Tilly taking notes. How sweet is this?





Food time. Notice how brave our smiles look, even though we were very hungry





post food, time to swap fabric





Santie, Tilly and I
After a couple of glasses of wine, the smiles are more effortless...quite enthusiastic if i may say





I loved Zoe's Macaron dress.





Danny boy!! Daniel was quite popular among tthe girls.



Brighton was alot of fun, though at one point Zoe and Tilly were kind enough to take a break because I was not feeling well, and we sat down for some tea, in my case, a plate of chocolate fudge cake and ice- cream.

I was so glad I went, because I met Santie, who I will be meeting in Belgium in a couple of days for more fabric shopping. I also discovered the best place to be in this world, if anything were to go wrong, like some terrorist attack, or anything major. That place could be anywhere, and I mean it seriously, anywhere, so long as I am with Claire. Claire is one seriously organised person. She has everything for anything in her bag.  So Claire, if you are reading this, I think you are seriously cool!!

I also came away with alot of fabric from the fabric swap. I don't have any pics of them, because I forgot to take pictures of them, but most of what I got came from Claire, so whenever i do make something out of them, I will be giving a big shout out to her.

You will be happy to know that I did not buy any fabric. Seriously. I only bought a couple of metres of milliners elastic, for fascinators. I still have to finish the fascinator I am making for Rachel, so I'm glad I got that. I also bought a couple of buckles, and leather thonging for jewellry making. Aww, I'm all grown up now. I can resist the lure of fabric. I might not be so restrained when I go to Belgium though. Santie and I will be going crazy in Antwerp soon.

Sunday, I decided to draft a skirt pattern.



Somehow, this tub of ice cream made it into the equation





I got derailed. Wouldn't you?



Monday, day 27, at work, and I got caught laughing like a hyena here. I'm wearing the top I embelished a couple of weeks (days?) ago.

Where is my Camera?

I have been going round and round today, looking for my camera. The last thing I remember is taking it out of my bag to take a picture of my latest pattern drafting exercise, which ended, as I ultimately knew it would, with me shaking my head furiously and wondering if I was really so thick, and reaching into the fridge for a new tub of Hagen Daaz Vanilla and chocolate brownie ice cream. This is a new flavour, and its the first time I was having it. I LOVED it so much, I finished it in one go.

I still don't know where my camera is!!

Yesterday I went to Brighton for the Me Made June meet up organised by Zoe. However, I can't show you any pics at this time because I can't find my ""#$"@^%$# camera!!!

Where is my camera?

I don't know to be honest. I still have not taken my MMJ outfit of the day. eek!!!

I had so much fun yesterday in Brighton. It was my first time going there, and I had such high hopes for my time there. The weather forecast had been quite promising, however, when we got there, it was anything but sunny!!! but the sheer excitement of being in the presence of talented people made up for the weather.I would have shown you pictures, but as you would have read by now, I can't find my $%^#^%U^$^&^$$ camera!!!

Where is my camera?

I've just looked under the bed, though to be honest I don't recall putting it there. But a gal has got to look where a gal has got to look. Now where was I? Oh yes, Brighton!! but first....

Where is my camera?

I think i will stop looking for it now.  If you want to see pics of Brighton, Tilly and Suzy have pictures of us grinning like little muppets.

I will have to do another post when I do find my camera, so that you can see the pictures from my own angle.

So, I am off again, on another search and rescue mission for my camera.

have a nice week everyone.

MMJ day 22: Hanging out with House of Pinheiro

Hi Everyone, guess who's back????

Yup, Moi!!

So the last couple of days have been interesting. Sitting at home ( sometimes venturing out bravely, and crawling back home in pain) and thinking of what to do with myself. Its funny how you think you have so much time on your hands when you are off work, but you end up doing nothing, not because you don't want to, but because you can't....literally.

I've been so touched by the level of support and well wishes I've received from you all. Thank you ever so much. It feels nice to know that out there, in the neverland that is the internet, and of course, the physical world, there are people who think of you. Even if you have never met them. Which brings me to the conclusion that sewing makes the world go round ( and to the greater conclusion, and proof, that the world really is round.) I don't care about all those scientists with all those formulas and equations, screaming at the top of their coarse lungs, willing to die and in many cases dying, just to prove that the earth is a circle. Why go through all that stress to prove something like that when all they could have done was buy a sewing machine, sew stuff, post it online, and look at google analytics to see the location of your readers to know that? Granted there was no internet in those days, but still? Ha, I know i might be spewing rubbish now, don't blame me. Blame the morphine. I think its muddled somewhat with my brain.

So, what have I been doing with myself?

First things first, I went crazy on ebay, and bought loads of jewelry making stuff (its the morphine you see), then I hung out with Rachel of House of Pinheiro. Her bday is on saturday, and me being the littlte busy body I am, decided to meet up with her. I'm starting work tomorrow, so I wanted to at least have a little fun before going back to spreadsheets.

So first off, we met at Euston station. I had made a necklace, and decided to use it as my MMJ item du jour. I was running late, so i decided to run to the station, and of course, next thing I knew, my necklace came off, and my beads went scattering around. So  I had to pick them up, one by one, peeping around me to make sure no one was watching before bending down and looking under a car to see if any of my precious beads had rolled down under. Of course they had, so i had to go halfway under the car to get them. Having scooped all my beads, I continued running to the station, just to get there, and the train was late. Typical!

We met just after 6pm so it was not possible to hit any fabric stores, so we went eye shopping, dissecting clothes we saw, opening them  up to look at the fabric content and railing against the shops for having the  gumption to sell a polyester item for 99 pounds. Can you believe it? or was the price higher? can't remember now....morphine!!


In Uniqlo, we saw this pleated t-shirt that reminded us of the Sorbetto pattern, and decided to make our own versions.

Zara was the guilty owner of a very expensive polyester frock. I was not remotely amused.

We made our way to John Lewis because they have a haberdashery and fabric section, and we just had to have our fabric fix. Of course we did not buy anything because Rachel is going through a "no buying week", and I am saving my few coins, to be unleashed on the Brighton fabric shop owners on Saturday during the Me Made June meet up organised by Zoe.

Interesting fabric display in John Lewis.....

....followed by the pattern ......

............and a shocking realisation of how short I really am. In my defense though, Rachel is very tall. Conclusion, I am tall, but Rachel is taller....I dare anyone to say otherwise!!

I loved this little machine. My sister wants a sewing machine, so I might gift her with this for her bday.

Food time....YAY!!!!!
We rushed into the first restaurant we saw just opposite John Lewis, give a few steps. At this point, conversation had simmered down, because hunger was the order of the minute.

yum yum!!

My fave, chocolate fudge cake and vanilla ice-cream.

time for a pic. You can see my me made necklace a little better here.

A fascinator I made for Rachel. Its not finished yet, but I just had to show her. lol. I need to buy  millinery elastic and attach it so she can wear it sans main, as she is doing in the pic....

a little tilting of the head gave us a view without hands.

And she gave me this lovely soft cotton fabric which came all the way from Brazil. See how sewing makes the world go round?

....and this holder for my scissors. Isn't that cute? and it even has my name stitched on it. I can't show it because it was made with white thread, and my camera's flash does not permit a good picture.

MMJ Day 11: Blogger meet-up

Today I hung out with the beautiful Melizza of Pincushiontreats, wearing one of my assembly line tops.Her birthday was a few days ago, so we decided to celebrate by doing what we both love best...yep..you guessed it all right...FABRIC SHOPPPING!!

She decided to take me to one of her favourite fabric joints called Rolls and Rems. It's located in Holloway road, which is on the Piccadilly line, for anyone interested.

When I woke up this morning, I spent some time trying to think of the best way to tell my husband I was going out fabric shopping without receiving one of those didn't-you-just-buy-more-fabric-last weekend looks. So the conversation went somewhat like this

Dibs (with the most nonchalant look ever invented) : "oh, I will be going out shortly" 

Mr. Dibs (eyebrows arching): " ok, where to?"

Dibs: "Its my friend's birthday, so we are just going for lunch, and we might check out some fabric  

            shops. but i already bought some fabric last week, so i'm not looking for anything

Mr. Dibs( with a comical look of undisguised relief): "ok dear, have fun"

Oh, and what fun I had!!

Its amazing how quickly your steps widen when you see a fabric shop on the horizon. I met Melizza already there, with a latte in her hands, looking very chilled out and relaxed. Not me. I was on fire, and ready for some action. I quickly asked her where the remnant basket was ( as I always do when i enter a fabric shop). 

This was a proper remnant basket (box actually), with proper sized remnants. Measuring anything between 1.5 -5 metres of fabric, with the most expensive being £6.99. Now how awesome is that. And they kept adding to the pile, and we kept picking them up, almost snatching them from the poor guy's hands. Fabric shopping is fun, but its so much more fun when you are with someone who loves fabric shopping as much as you. 

Melizza with her purchase

This is how satisfied people smile..trust me, its true

Part of the shop

From there we went to the market, where I got some bias piping, and other stuff. Next stop was this car boot sale.

I surprisingly did not see anything I liked here!! SHOCKING.

At this point, our energy levels had plummeted to a not-so-respectable zero, and we headed to a Spanish restaurant for some much needed nourishment.

Melizza tucking in to delicious tapas

Taking a break from eating to pose 

Main course

So, what did I buy?

4metres of blue satin for, 4.5 metres of black taffeta, 3.5 metres of cotton lawn, 4 metres of blue flowery cotton, and 1.5 metres of green and cotton for the respectable sum of £29 !!

After I left Melizza, I headed off to Goldhawk road in search of a particular stretch cotton fabric. I am using it for Faye's Summer Dress Challenge, and I forgot to cut the bodice front, and I ran out of fabric. So I went to the shop I got it from, and as was expected, it was sold out!! Shawnta suggested I use another fabric for the bodice, which i think is what i will do.

As usual, I could not come out of Goldhawk road empty handed. I found these in the remnant basket in one of the shops. They are all Italian cotton, and the least is about a metre, so these can give me 2 tops and 4 dresses. The cost of them all? 10 quid, thank you very much!!

I also got these, all six for a pound, which I will use in various projects, to embellish tops, or add sleeves.

So that was my day in review. 

As for Mr. Dibs, I took back a couple of beers for him. This was enough to draw his attention from the other bag in my left hand, which had all my fabric. smart non?

What have you all been up to?

Have a pleasant evening.

What a fandango it was

I've been a very naughty girl, I went out on saturday, and bought a lot of fabric. I can assure though, I am entirely blameless. It was all Karen's fault. Karen, you see, is the special lady who organised a super duper shopping trip to Goldhawk road, for UK based sewing enthusiasts. This is the second time she is organising such an event, the first being a trip to Walthamslow Market. I missed that one, because at that point I was so lazy with my sewing, I did not even know where my sewing machine was.

You can find a more detailed account of the Goldhawk Road trip on her blog.

The day started with me waking up at 6:30am ( I NEVER wake up before 7am. even on weekdays). So my husband knew my bank account was in trouble. The only time I woke up earlier than 6am, was last year, when the Next sale started. but I digress......

Goldhawk road is a 20 minute ride from my house, so I would have been fine to leave the house at 2pm. But NO. I had my sights on one of Karen's shopping bags she made for the 1st 10 people. So nothing was going to stop me from getting there early. Not even the promise of a hot Zingger burger.

Picture stolen from Karen's blog ( sorry Karen)

I got to Shepherd's bush at 12:30, and decided to stop by LK Bennet in Westfields shopping centre, to have a closer look at the Selina dress I blogged about earlier. Next stop was Goldhawk road, just because I could not help myself anymore. It was my intention to buy nothing, but then, Goldhawk road is Goldhawk road is Goldhawk, and I am yet to find anyone (who loves sewing) who has been to Goldhawk road, and came out empty handed. So, I bought a couple of things I found in the remnant pile.

I met up with Karen and other girls in a nearby pub. By "other girls", I mean Zoe, Jane, and Winnie, all of whom I have been cyber stalking so much, it might be considered illegal.

Karen, Jane, Winnie, and Zoe

After downing a pint (badly needed), I followed them to where the action was.

Can you identify yourself?

She divided us into four groups, and asked us to go forth and conquer. and conquer we did.

It was so exciting being there. My group was made of Justine, Adrienne, Marie and Melizza, and we spent our time oohing and ahhing over fabric, then haggling like there was no tomorrow. We managed to get some bargains though.

At the end of it all, we met up with the rest of the girls at Vesbar, again pre-arranged by Karen ( is there something she can't do?). Kronnenberg never tasted so good.

Melizza and Marie

Now, to the fun part. What did I get?

I went there with the intention of getting fabric for my beignet skirt, a shirt dress from Lisette pattern, and for the selina dress. Did I buy any of those. NOPE!!!!!

I got these instead

Prints

Solids

Linning

A remnant to cut out the flowers and use as applique

and these (I'm not sure which), to make this dress

With this Butterick pattern 

Butterick 5416

Phew!!!! That was a long one. I am all spent now. 

I'm off to watch Mad Men. I only started watching the 1st series yesterday, and I can now understand why everyone talks about the dresses. I watch it with a pencil in one hand, and a notebook on my lap. My husband pays attention to the storyline, while I am nearby, furiously drawing the outfits. Expect to see a Mad Men-ish influence on my sewing projects in the not to distant future.

Have a nice week,

xoxo,

Dibs